Coastal First Nations call for meeting with PM on upholding oil tanker moratorium

A chief on the British Columbia coast says a federal oil tanker ban must stay in place. Danielle Shaw, chief councillor of the Wuikinuxv Nation, made the comment as the Great Bear Initiative issued an open letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney this week. The Coastal First Nations Great Bear Initiative is asking Carney to reject any new proposal for a crude oil pipeline to the northwest coast. “We just really want to open up the dialogue to be able to discuss these things ahead of time,” said Shaw in a telephone interview with APTN News. “As Prime Minister Carney has said, an oil pipeline through here is highly likely…, we still haven’t had dialogue with him on that and that’s deeply concerning.” The Great Bear Initiative says there is no oil pipeline or oil tanker project that would be acceptable to their group, and any proposal to send crude through their coastal waters is a “non-starter.” Their communities are located within the unceded traditional territories along the North and Central Coast and Haida Gwaii. The vast coastal region stretches from the top of Vancouver Island to the Alaskan border—and is also known as the Great Bear Rainforest. The group is asking Carney to uphold the 2019 Oil Tanker Moratorium Act, which prohibits oil tankers carrying more than 12,500 metric tons of crude from stopping, loading or unloading at ports or marine installations along the north coast. The group has instead suggested the prime minister meet with them to “better understand the incredible ecological treasure that is the north Pacific coast.” It says the tanker ban was Canada’s recognition of more than 50 years of effort to protect the north Pacific coast from the risks of an oil spill. The group’s letter comes as Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is pushing for a new private-sector pipeline that would send crude oil to the northern B.C. coast for export to Asia. So far, no deals with oil companies have been announced by the Alberta government. Shaw says the north Pacific coast has one of the richest and most productive cold-water marine ecosystems on Earth and is still a source of sustenance, culture, and livelihood for coastal communities. “I would hope the prime minister would speak with the ministers in his cabinet who we already have a strong relationship with and who he relies upon, because he’s new within this role and I would urge him to…., come to us and to talk with us directly,” Shaw said. “We are open and available at any point that he is and I think that he’ll see that we’re not sitting here saying that we don’t want any type of industry or economic drivers in this area.” Shaw says they have accommodated and supported liquid natural gas (LNG) tanker traffic along the coast and traffic is expected to increase to 600 tankers per year in coastal waters by 2030. About 175 LNG tankers are expected in coastal waters this year, according to Shaw. “Those tankers are already going to have to navigate through the Douglas Channel and the Great Bear Sea and that’s just growing over the years,” she noted. The letter from the Great Bear Initiative comes less than a week after Carney met hundreds of First Nations chiefs, where he faced resistance to the Building Canada Act, which allows the government to fast track major projects that it deems to be in the national interest, including by sidestepping existing laws. A news release from the Prime Minister’s Office on Tuesday, after he met with premiers in Ontario, indicated Carney will “continue meeting with key stakeholders over the coming weeks to ensure big projects are built in full partnership with First Nations, Inuit, and Métis, and to build one Canadian economy.” “We want to make sure that there’s collaborative and responsible and sustainable industries that can really bolster Canada on a global scale and we want to support that,” said Shaw. “We don’t feel that any oil companies are going to do that, and we are opposed to oil tankers on our territory.” With files from The Canadian Press Continue Reading